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Matt Cassel To Command $7 million Or $8 million A Year ?

Posted by Mike on November 3, 2008

CNNSI’s Peter King is reporting, that it is likely the New England Patriots will not tag Matt Cassel as a franchise player and that some team will pay the 26-year-old somewhere between $7 or $8 Million dollars a season to be their quarterback. Much like the deal that Matt Schaub has in Houston. King believes that the Patriots will just develop third-round draft pick Kevin O’Connell. So far Cassel has played better than expected, his numbers of 7 TD’s and 7 INT’s aren’t going to light the world on fire, but each game he is getting progressively better. In a time when quarterbacks are at a premium, it’s very likely that Cassel will be a hot commodity this offseason. The Patriots won’t franchise Cassel due to the high cap figure (around $8 or $9 Million), but why not make him a transition player ? This would allow for a team to make an offer to Cassel without the high price tag in money and draft picks that the franchise would cost, and it could also allow for the Patriots to actively trade him. The Patriots could definitely get at the very least a second-round draft pick for the free-agent to be. More from King:

On another subject: I said on NBC last night that Matt Cassel will be in a unique position after the season. In this day and age, it’s highly rare that a young starting quarterback, playing well, would hit the open market. But Cassel, 26, will almost certainly not be tagged by the Patriots after the season, and the team will risk losing him unless Tom Brady looks like he’ll have problems returning from his knee surgery for the start of the 2009 season.

Why? Because the Patriots have a system in place, a system that calls for them to draft players to replace those who leave as rich free-agents. In this case, they’ll simply train 2008 third-round pick Kevin O’Connell to replace Cassel and some team out there will pay Cassel $7 million or $8 million a year to be their quarterback of the future.

Will he be worth it? Maybe not, but when a young quarterback with some position experience is on the street, teams drool. The Texans dealt for Matt Schaub and then paid him $8 million a year — after he’d started all of two NFL games.